Numerous assembly lines for mounting tires on their mounting wheels and other assembly lines for mounted units are known in the prior art and are widely used today in the automotive industry. Generally, the assembly lines, known in the art, contain conveying means, such as conveyor belts or metal rollers making it possible to route the tires, wheels and mounted assemblies, respectively, from one point to another on the assembly line. The tires and wheels are delivered from a supply warehouse by means of suitable pallets to be further mounted on the assembly line and delivered to customers. On the assembly line, the seats of each wheel rim are lubricated, the wheels are centered, and the beads of the tire are lubricated to facilitate the mounting of the tire on the wheel rim, upon completion of which the tire is inflated and checked for air pressure level to meet the requirements of an automotive industry.
Various prior art patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,270 to Menard et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,281 to Menard et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,097 to Menard et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,176,288 to Kane et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,514 to Piacente et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,191 to Neiferd et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,919 to Timlin, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,101 to Kinnick et al. describe assembly lines and machines for mounting or assembling tires on their rims. The U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,270 to Menard et al. discloses an assembly line for mounting tires on wheels including several stations designated for inflating the tire mounted on the wheel, placement of the bead heels of the tire, and balancing the tire, which also includes apparatus for checking the conformity of the diameter of the tire to be mounted and for checking the conformity of the dimensions of the wheel.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,191 to Neiferd et al. illustrates an inlet conveyor for conveying tires through a tire uniformity testing system. The conveyor includes a tire centering mechanism and a pair of conveyor belts for delivering tires to a tire testing station. A conveyor elevator may be raised or lowered with respect to the frame unit to raise or lower the support rails and conveyor belts. The support rails and conveyor belts are adjustable in a lateral direction to vary the width of the space between the belts to accommodate different size tires. The conveyor is movable with respect to the testing station to reverse the direction of tire flow through the testing machine. The U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,191 to Neiferd et al. does not teach a method of the assembly line expansion, wherein the assembly line may be easily re-configured or re-shaped thereby adding an extra filler section or unit.
In addition to the patents, cited above, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,015 to Flinn discloses an apparatus for assuring that an uninflated mini tire mounted on a wheel is coaxially centered relative to the wheel prior to the arrival of the mini tire-wheel unit at the inflation station of a tire-wheel assembly line. The assembly line includes a pallet type conveyor comprising a plurality of pallets, which are advanced from left to right of the assembly line. The assembly line includes a tire mounter station and a tire inflater station. Similar to the U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,191 to Neiferd et al., the U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,015 to Flinn does not teach a method of the assembly line expansion, wherein the assembly line maybe easily re-configured or re-shaped thereby adding an extra section or unit.
Although the prior art assembly lines including wheel orienting, wheel/tire soaping, tire mounting, and inflating units are used by a wide variety of manufacturers in the automotive industry, one of the areas of continuous development and research is the area of a more advanced design of the assembly line wherein the line is adapted to conform with different floor configurations in an assembly plant or factory. The opportunity remains for a new design of the assembly line, where, unlike typical assembly lines, used in the automotive industry today, the assembly line may be expanded, and easily re-configured or re-shaped, wherein a variety of work stations may be inserted into the assembly line to satisfy different requirements of the manufacturers.